Boomtown - Debra Spark

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PROFILETIM HARRINGTONReal-estate developer Tim Harringtonin front of “Bessie,” the 1956 Ford thatserves as a shuttle between HiddenPond, a luxury resort in the woods, andthe Tides Beach Club, an oceanfront hoteland restaurant.48 MAY 2012 MH+D

y Debra Spark | Photography Trent BellBoomSomething is happening in the KENNEBUNKS. People are moving here.Building here. Opening businesses here. Tim Harrington is not surprised.These small towns have always had heart.some point during the planning of my wedding,about the time when dresses and hairstyles and suchwere being discussed, I balked. All this to-do. It wasn’t my thing. Isaid to my mother, “I don’t really want to be the focus of attention.”“But you’re the bride,” she observed.Well, true enough.Given my own way of thinking, I shouldn’t have been so surprisedwhen I called up real-estate developer Tim Harrington toarrange an interview. My task: write a profile of this man responsiblefor beautiful residences, upscale restaurants, a major healthand fitness center, and multiple luxury-hotel properties in theKennebunks.“The thing is,” Harrington said, amiably enough, “I don’t wantthis article to be all about me.”But, I thought, and flashed on my mother, it’s a profile of you.At first, I imagined that Harrington’s preference stemmed froman awareness of the mixed feelings that people sometimes haveabout real-estate developers, especially those who have been asactive as he has been. But it takes only a little poking around torealize Harrington’s modesty is more complex, that it hinges onhis deep appreciation for the people with whom he works and thecommunities that have made his success possible.A recent morning finds Harrington, coffee cup in hand, at theKennebunkport Inn, where builders from Thomas and Lord ofKennebunkport are finishing renovations in preparation for thesummer season. The entire downstairs used to be occupied bythe restaurant One Dock, and although it’s going to stay, therooms are being reconfigured to create more social space forguests. Harrington stops to make a decision about moldingbefore praising the man responsible for the woodwork on a fireplacemantle. People are running up the stairs and in and out ofthe building. A painter kneels in front of a can of paint.Harrington has a clear idea about what will emerge from allthis activity. He walks around the work site listing the featuresthat will soon be there: tables and wingback chairs, a terracewith an outdoor fireplace, a solarium. By the new reception area,he indicates shelves intended for coffee-table art books. “Youknow those books,” he says, “that you always mean to look at,but you never have time for?” He wants the hotel to be the placewhere you take that time, where you really enjoy.Harrington is in his late 40s, but his manner is all boyish excitement.Outside, the window boxes will be blue. There will bered flowers on the ground. “It is going to be awe-some,” he says,tightening his fists and shoulders with endearing eagerness.Louise Hurlbutt, of Hurlbutt Designs in Kennebunk, stops by witha design board featuring photographs and fabric swatches. Thecenterpiece of the bar area will be a 16-foot-long photograph oflobster boats at dusk by Kennebunkport photographer ChristopherBecker. The rooms will have a leather banquette, lacquerwallpaper, and upholstered stools. The palette will be blue andwhite with a little red. Chic Americana.Down the street from all this busyness, another crew is workingon the Grand Hotel, a boutique hotel with shops that will alsoopen in the summer of 2012. Hurlbutt presents a second designboard for this project. “The Grand Hotel is…grander!” she says,meaning fancier, but the Kennebunkport Inn is quite upscale itself.The difference is that the Grand Hotel will aim for midcenturyelegance, with Waterworks bathrooms and a palette of warmbeiges, golds, and grays.“There’s a picture at the Tides,” Harrington says, referring tothe Tides Beach Club, another one of his hotel properties, “of allMH+D MAY 2012 49

PROFILETIM HARRINGTONThe design of Earth, Ken Oringer’srestaurant at Hidden Pond, is modeledafter the design of Harrington’sfavorite dining spot in Uruguay.50 MAY 2012 MH+D

Harrington and business partner Deb Lennon are sitting atthe far end of the bar (above), underneath an apple treehung upside down and covered with lights.Tim Harrington at Hidden Pond with his “A-team”: interiordesigner Louise Hurlbutt and landscape designer Ted Carter(left). The three are sitting at a table made by local craftspersonand project designer Steve Doe.these dogs with their heads out the car window as the cars aredriving down the road, and the look on the dogs’ faces is pure joy.That’s what we are trying to give guests: delight.”Harrington’s connection to the Kennebunks goes back to hisboyhood. Although he grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, heregularly visited Cape Porpoise with his family. Even as a youngman, he had an interest in development. His best friend’s fatherwas a real-estate developer, and Harrington and his friend usedto vacuum the halls of apartment buildings on weekends. Harrington’sfriend hated the task. Harrington found himself readingthe father’s building management magazines.Harrington’s career started with residential and commercialproperties in the Boston area. Not long after, he began buildingand renovating homes in the Kennebunks, and he estimates thathe has completed 25 homes since, 8 of which he’s actually livedin. There have been other significant projects along the way, includingGoodall Health Center and Quest Fitness, which housesmedical practices, a sleep lab, outpatient facilities, and a state-ofthe-artgym that offers 50 classes a week and includes a virtualrealityspin studio.In more recent years, Harrington has turned his attention tothe group of hotels that he now owns with Deb Lennon under theumbrella of the Kennebunkport Resort Collection. Lennon, he emphasizes,is “the hotel brain.” She worked for Sheraton for 25 yearsbefore buying the Kennebunkport Inn and forming a partnershipwith Harrington. “The only thing I know about hotels is how tostay in one,” Harrington says.Although uniformly luxurious, each property in the KennebunkportResort Collection has its own feel and offers a different experience toguests. Hidden Pond, which consists of 36 cottages on 60 woodedacres, is reminiscent of an old Maine camp, but an old Maine campwith a spa, pool, and a restaurant run by Ken Oringer, a James Beardaward–winning chef from Boston. Hidden Pond’s first guests wereMH+D MAY 2012 51

PROFILETIM HARRINGTONthe wedding party for Harrington’s marriage to his partner,Juan Urtubey. His hope is that the spirit of that celebration willspill over to the present day. “Hidden Pond is a place filled withjoy, love, and good times,” Harrington says. The Tides, oppositeGoose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport, is hip, brightly colored,and finished with raffia wallpaper, sisal rugs, and the work of localartists. The cheerful, restful Cottages at Cabot Cove consistof 14 waterfront cabins, each with its own terrace and garden.Harrington and Urtubey have a place in Miami, a beachhouse in Uruguay, and an apartment in Buenos Aires. Theysummer in Maine and travel extensively. If Harrington feels hehas design influences, they come from his travels. Kevin Lord,owner of Thomas and Lord, says,ÒHis phone is like a library of photographs.HeÕll say, ÔHey, look what I sawin South America. ThatÕs what I wantthis room to look like.ÕÓ“I always bring back some of the influences of the placesI’ve gone and then reinterpret for Maine,” Harrington says. “I’malways saying, ‘What would the Maine version of this be?’” Anexample is Hidden Pond’s restaurant, Earth, which takes itsdesign inspiration from Harrington’s favorite restaurant in Uruguay.“I think of myself as a self-taught designer,” Harrington says.“But not arrogant enough to not use designers.” For Hidden Pondand the Cottages at Cabot Cove, Harrington initially asked differentdesigners to outfit each of the cottages. He then opened thedesigner showcases for public viewing and held a grand party.The proceeds from the tickets went to the Childhood Abuse Pre-52 MAY 2012 MH+D

One of Hidden Pond’s tucked-in-the-woods bungalows (opposite, top).The interior of one of the cottages at Hidden Pond (opposite, bottom),designed by Louise Hurlbutt.Louise Hurlbutt also designed the nautically themed interior of Tia’sTopside in Kennebunk (left).The outside garden and eating area at Hidden Pond (below), with alandscape designed by Ted Carter of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes.As they mature, the golden weeping willows around the pond will bowinto the water.vention Council of York County and River Tree Arts.Showcases aside, Harrington tends to work with the same folksover and over again. Kevin Lord, Louise Hurlbutt, and Ted Carterof Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes in Buxton are his most frequentpartners, and they feel as strongly about Harrington as Harringtonfeels about them. Hurlbutt says that it was Harrington’s enthusiasmthat reenergized her and got her back to work after exhaustingrounds of chemotherapy for breast cancer. Carter, a self-describedmystic, says that his work as a landscape designer can violate apristine piece of land, and that he feels the need to heal the landafter. While working at Hidden Pond, Carter says that he “askedpermission of the land and worshipped four directions of the universe,and Tim participated in this with me. It’s highly unusual for adeveloper to do this.”Not surprisingly, the line between friends and business partnersfrequently blurs for Harrington. One of Harrington’s oldest friendsis Lori Lilly, owner of Tia’s, a popular waterside restaurant in Boston.For years, she had considered opening a second restaurant, but shewasn’t able to find a space that worked out. Harrington showedher what he was doing in the Kennebunks, and she says, “I just gotcaught up in the beauty of it and the excitement and I couldn’t say

PROFILETIM HARRINGTON54 MAY 2012 MH+D

June 5 th -June 9 thSponsored By:Cellardoor WineryColony HotelHancock LumberKennebunkport Resort CollectionNappi DistributorsThe White Barn InnC.A. Smith PhotographyCaptain Fairfield InnThe Hinckley CompanyHurlbutt DesignsPack Maynard & AssociatesThomas & LordThe bar at the Tides Beach Club(above) was designed by LouiseHurlbutt of Hurlbutt Designs.The Plexiglas swivel bar stoolsallow one to see the tuftedleather barfront with polishednickel studs. The bar itself is aclover-leaf shape with a Carraramarble top.(Opposite, clockwise from top)The interior of one of the twosuites at the Tides Beach Clubthat have been outfitted by“happy chic” designer JonathanAdler. A chair set up for hotelguests on Goose Rocks Beach.The façade of the stylishly renovatedTides Beach Club.no.” Her restaurant, Tia’s Topside, is now centrally locatedin a former colonial home in Kennebunk.The phrase “I couldn’t say no” seems to come up oftenwhen people talk about Harrington. He has a clear visionfor what he wants, and he knows how to find peoplewho can translate that vision into properties people wantto stay in, eat in, and live in. When Harrington sees anopportunity in the Kennebunks—and he has more projectsplanned, including another hotel slated for 2013—histeam makes it happen. Together, they help keep a historictown booming. MH+DFor more information, see Resources on page 109.kennebunkportfestival.comProduced By:MH+D MAy 2012 55